The Layman's Guide to Microsoft Azure

Microsoft
Azure
BasicsSimple, Straightforward, and Jargon-Free Answers

Microsoft Azure
CONTENTS
• What Is Microsoft Azure?
• What Is Azure Used for?
• Why Do Businesses Want to Use Someone Else’s Hardware?
• What Are the Advantages of Virtualization?
• How Much Does Azure Cost?
• Is Azure Secure?
• How Does Azure Stack up against the Competition?
• Resources

Microsoft Azure
WHAT IS MICROSOFT AZURE?
For most of us idle wanderers of the interwebs, it’s easy to imagine that all the websites and
applications we come across in our net travels exist in some invisible realm watched over by
armies of tech wizards. Of course, in reality all the information that gets channeled to our
devices has to be stored in some physical location, and for applications to work data has to be
processed by an actual machine somewhere.
APTERAINC.COM |PG. 3
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Microsoft Azure
Until recently, most of the computing people did relied on their device’s own hardware. Next,
we started pulling information from other machines so we could view various types of web
content. Then those websites began performing more and more tasks for us, so we were
effectively using distant machines to do our computing and simply using our own devices as
portals to the resulting output.

Microsoft Azure
Official Definition:
“Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and
manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can
build applications using any language, tool or framework. And you can integrate your public
cloud applications with your existing IT environment.”

Microsoft Azure
With the rapid expansion of the market for mobile devices and businesses’increasing reliance
on ever-larger volumes of data, the idea of outsourcing your storage, processing, and hosting
functions to third-party companies developed into what today we call the cloud. Azure is
Microsoft’s general-purpose name for their cloud offerings in these domains.
APTERAINC.COM |PG. 6FACT: 57% of Fortune 500 companies are using Azure

Microsoft Azure
WHAT IS AZURE USED FOR?
Cloud Services:
Azure can be used as a platform for building and deploying applications. Your developers
create the code with tools provided by Azure, and then virtual machines execute the
application using Windows Server. Since the development and hosting tools are purchased
through a subscription, Azure Cloud Services is an example of what’s called Platform as a
Service (PaaS).
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Microsoft Azure
Cloud Services (cont’d):
Your application will run on virtual machines, but unlike with the Virtual Machines services,
Azure will install the operating system and continuously update it with any new patches. You
can use Cloud Services to create different roles for users—web users and workers—and it’s
really easy, as it is with all Azure tools, to scale up or down to accommodate more or fewer
users. So you only ever pay for the computing power that actually gets used.
ACTIVE
USERS
INACTIVE

Microsoft Azure
Virtual Machines:
Azure gives you the ability to create VMs simply by specifying the size and the Virtual Hard
Disk (VHD) you want to use. The VHD is the virtual version of a hard drive on a conventional
computer; it’s where all the files and applications are saved. Azure provides access to both
Windows and Linux VHDs, so developers have the freedom to choose what they want to work
with. You pay according to how much time the VM is actually running. Developers can use
VMs to build and test applications quickly at low cost.
VHD
>$

Microsoft Azure
Virtual Machines (cont’d):
You can also use VMs to augment on-site datacenters to boost the power of applications like
SharePoint. Since Azure Virtual Machines essentially gives you the computing substrate for
your applications through a service subscription, it falls into the category of Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS).
VHD

Microsoft Azure
Web Sites:
You can use Azure as a platform for creating and hosting websites and web applications. Web
Sites supports several different development tools and content management systems. And it
provides a low cost way to make your site available to however many visitors use it without
having to maintain or upgrade any on-site servers.
www.aptera.com
VHD
Fact: >250,000 active websites on Azure

Microsoft Azure
Mobile Services:
Like Cloud Services, Azure’s Mobile Services give you the tools to create and deploy
applications, but obviously in this case the apps are used on mobile devices. The information
that gets accessed by the app running on your device is stored in what’s called a back-end
database, and so Mobile Services is referred to as mobile Back-end as a Service (mBaaS). With
Azure, you can build apps for Android, iOS, HTML/ JavaScript, and Windows Phone.

Fact: >1 million SQL Databases in Azure
Microsoft Azure
WHY DO BUSINESSES WANT TO USE
SOMEONE ELSE’S HARDWARE?
You get three basic advantages from using cloud platforms and infrastructure as opposed to
on-site machines.
1. Speed
Purchasing new servers, configuring them, and integrating them into your existing
environment tends to be both costly and time-consuming. With Azure, you can set up an
application and start building it out in minutes.
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Microsoft Azure
2. Scale
Demand for your applications may be variable throughout the year (think tax return filing
software). Or you may expect a low number of users at first followed by huge growth as your
application catches on. You may even expect usage to the decline, maybe because you’re
launching another application. Scaling up with your own on-site servers means purchasing
and provisioning them to accommodate growth. And once the servers are in place you still
have to maintain them even if they’re not being used.
VHD MO. USAGE
JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC.
100+k
75k
50k
10k

Microsoft Azure
3. Economics
If you’re expecting your application to start slow and then gain momentum—and who
doesn’t want this to happen?—then you will probably start off with more processing capacity
than you actually use. And if usage declines after a peak you’ll have a similar problem. With
Azure, you only pay for what you use. On-site server farms also require a lot of maintenance:
climate control, electricity, disaster recovery, backups, security. Moving to the cloud means
freeing up your IT staff so they can focus on new projects instead of routine maintenance.
VHD
ON-SITE

Microsoft Azure
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF
VIRTUALIZATION?
You can make use of virtualization in your on-site datacenters, but if you’re using Azure you’ll
definitely be relying on virtual machines to one extent or another. To create virtual servers on
physical servers, you use software that sets up divisions between each virtual machine (VM)
and allows them all to operate independently. What this does is add a layer of abstraction
between your information and the physical infrastructure that hosts it. This in turn gives you
more flexibility in how you manage and protect the various elements of your computing
environment.
The main advantages of virtualization come in four basic areas:
VHD

Microsoft Azure
VIRTUALIZATION?
1. Efficiency
Some applications may require relatively little processing power to run. By virtualizing your
servers, you make it possible to devote an entire VM to each application. And by hosting
multiple smaller servers on one large physical server you can significantly reduce overall
energy costs. The VMs aren’t restricted to their physical servers either. So if you need more
power to run them it’s really easy to pull in other machines to host them.
VHD

Microsoft Azure
VIRTUALIZATION?
2. Resilience
With Azure, each of your VMs is ready to go on more than one actual machine. That means
built-in redundancy if something goes wrong with an application. If your VM picks up a virus
or some malware, it can simply be shut down without disrupting the operation of your
application. And of course there’s also the assurance that if some type of natural disaster
occurs the datacenter running your applications is secure—even if an entire Microsoft
datacenter goes down there are still extra layers of redundancy.
VHD

Microsoft Azure
VIRTUALIZATION?
3. Testing
It’s much easier to set up a VM than it is to purchase and provision a physical server. And you
can never be sure running a new application won’t somehow affect existing applications
running on the same machine. So developers often use VMs to build and test applications.
This allows you to isolate them while still avoiding much of the costs of a new server.
www.aptera.com
VHD
TEST TEST
Fact: Azure includes over 300 services spanning Compute, Storage, and Networking.

Microsoft Azure
VIRTUALIZATION?
4. Migration and Running Upgrades
With VMs, you can keep your entire system up and running while you develop or update new
applications. You could in principle move your entire environment into Azure while you
replaced the whole thing and still have little or no downtime. You can even send a VM to a
client or an employee in a distant location so they can have the boosted processing power
they need.

Microsoft Azure
HOW MUCH DOES AZURE COST?
Unfortunately, there’s no simple way to answer the cost question because pricing for Azure is
based on variables along several dimensions. The cost of Cloud Services, for instance, is
determined by the number of VMs (which are also called instances), the size of the VMs, the
amount of memory they need to run, how much bandwidth they use, and what kind of
support you need. Cloud Services can run anywhere from $60 a month to over $60,000 a
month. And right now Microsoft is offering all kinds of special deals to businesses as an
incentive to make the move to the cloud.
The best way to get an idea of what your costs may be is to go to the Azure website and play
around with the cost calculator they provide. Here’s a link: COST CALCULATOR

Microsoft Azure
IS AZURE SECURE?
When CIOs are polled, the most common concern they cite about the cloud is security. In
many ways, these concerns are misplaced, since all the security breaches we’ve heard about
recently—like Target for instance—have involved conventional on-site computers. Cloud
computing is actually more secure than using your own servers for many of the same reasons
that keeping money in the bank is safer than stuffing it under your mattress.
AZURE
ON-STIE

Microsoft Azure
IS AZURE SECURE?
Microsoft’s datacenters are like Fort Knox: access is restricted with RFID and biometric
controls. Data is encrypted both at-rest and in-transit. And you can use various types of added
safeguards, like multifactor authentication for signing in. Recently, however, Microsoft has
responded to security concerns by offering what’s called elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) for
their platform services. This is an incredibly robust encryption technology, and certifications
require that extraordinarily stringent demands be met.
For more details about Azure security measures check out this white paper: AZURE WHITE
PAPER

Microsoft Azure
HOW DOES AZURE STACK UP AGAINST
THE COMPETITION?
The market for cloud technologies and services is dynamic and rapidly evolving. Amazon was
the industry pioneer with their cloud storage and infrastructure services, and it was only in
2013 that Microsoft really started making a push into the market. There’s no simple way to
summarize the scenarios in which one competitor is better positioned to meet your
company’s needs because the considerations are both numerous and intricate. But we can
point you to the best independent source for in-depth industry research and
recommendations, Gartner, Inc. And it’s interesting to see what Gartner’s experts have had to
say about Azure as Microsoft has been making headway into the cloud market.
APTERAINC.COM |PG. 24Fact: >20 trillion storage objects in Azure, delivers 2 million requests per second

Microsoft Azure
Microsoft
Azure
THE COMPETITION?
In June of 2013, Gartner researcher Eric Knipp summed up the field thus:
“If you could aggregate many evaluation criteria into one measure—appropriateness for
strategic adoption—one solution has established itself as a leader for .NET applications in
each cloud model: Windows Azure for public PaaS, AWS for Windows Server running on public
IaaS and Apprenda for private PaaS. Other offerings are beginning to mature and create real
competition for developer attention. In the public cloud, increased competition from
Microsoft has forced Amazon Web Services to up its game and to start treating Windows
Server VMs and Windows developers as first-class citizens. Likewise, Microsoft has been forced
to innovate and expand Azure into IaaS. Developers benefit from this competition.”
VS

Microsoft Azure
THE COMPETITION?
Knipp goes on to describe the Cloud Services situation like this:
“The PaaS offerings considered in this segment all share some characteristics. For example,
when compared with Microsoft Windows Azure, they are all simpler PaaS environments in
terms of number of features and capabilities. They have fewer options, adjacent services and
tooling integration. This should make them easier to get started with than a complex and
more powerful platform such as Windows Azure. However, ease of use is typically more about
tooling and workflow, and none of these environments comes close to Azure (or AWS) in the
quality of its tooling. Simply put, Microsoft's control over the .NET stack and its associated
Visual Studio tooling is a tremendous advantage over would-be PaaS competitors.”

Microsoft Azure
THE COMPETITION?
Gartner released their Magic Quadrant Report in January of 2014, and it shows that
Microsoft’s efforts to take over the cloud have been paying off. In the IaaS category, Azure is
second only to Amazon Web Services, and Azure is gaining fast. In the PaaS category, Azure is
alone with Salesforce in the Leader’s quadrant. Salesforce, who just began a partnership with
Microsoft, is still the leader in this area. The cloud storage company Nasuni recently tested the
leading cloud companies in the storage category, and this year Azure pulled ahead of the
pack for the first time. Taking all cloud dimensions and services together, Azure has already
taken a significant lead. And it seems Microsoft is only getting started.
Microsoft
Azure
Fact: NBC Sports streamed the entire 2014 Olympics with Azure. >100 million viewers

Microsoft Azure
RESOURCES
“Azure vs Amazon vs Rackspace vs HP vs Google: Cloud Storage Infographic,”by Dennis
Junk and Joe Beste, Aptera Blog, March 2014:
http://blog.apterainc.com/bid/379058/Azure-vs-Amazon-vs-Rackspace-vs-HP-vs-Google-Clou
d-Storage-Infographic
“Introducing Azure,”Microsoft Azure Website:
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/fundamentals-introduction-to-azur
e/
“Amazon, Microsoft Star in Gartner Cloud Magic Quadrant,”by Charles Babcock,
Information Week, May 2014:
http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/amazon-microsoft-star-in
-gartner-cloud-magic-quadrant/d/d-id/1269267
“Cloud Security: Are firms still fretting about the wrong issues?”by Toby Wolpe, ZDNet,
June 2014:
http://www.zdnet.com/cloud-security-are-firms-still-fretting-about-the-wrong-issues-700003
0571/

Microsoft Azure
RESOURCES
“Comparing Cloud Platform Options for .NET Applications,”by Eric Knipp, Gartner, 10
June 2013:
http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1G0FWUJ&ct=130613&st=sgt
“Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service,”Gartner, January 2014:
http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1UKQQA6&ct=140528&st=sb
“Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Platform as a Service,”Gartner, January
2014: http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?ct=140108&id=1-1P502BX&st=sb#
Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/

Microsoft Azure
RESOURCES
“Microsoft Beefs Up Azure Security with Cryptography,”by Chris Talbot, Talkin’Cloud,
June 2014:
http://talkincloud.com/cloud-computing-security/061214/microsoft-beefs-azure-security-cry
ptography
“Microsoft and Salesforce Partner – but What about Dynamics?”by Aaron Eisberg,
Aptera Blog:
http://blog.apterainc.com/bid/387673/Microsoft-and-Salesforce-Partner-but-What-About-Dy
namics
“New Windows Azure Network Security Whitepaper,”Ashwin Palekar, January 2014:
http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2014/01/07/new-windows-azure-network-security-whitepap
er/

Microsoft Azure
ABOUT APTERA
With offices in Fort Wayne, IN, and Nashville, TN, Aptera is home to one of the most talented
software and web design teams in the country. Since its founding in 2003, the Aptera team
has grown from a two-man operation to an organization with over seventy employees serving
businesses all over the country. A Microsoft Gold Certified Managed Partner, Aptera’s team
has experts in SharePoint, Business Intelligence, .NET Development, Cloud Computing,
Microsoft Lync, and more. We’re equipped to step in at any stage of your business’s project,
from analyzing workflows and installing data-tracking modules to building custom software
or a new web site, and from optimizing your search rankings to moving you into the cloud.
We believe the key to our success has been hiring excellent people, giving them the resources
they need, and encouraging them to treat every project as the basis for a lasting partnership.
To get more information about Azure follow Aptera on these social networks
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